Verified
Verified
This patient has provided documentation of treatment at this clinic.
2018 - 2019, Unknown Success
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Dr. Kroska spends a lot of time with you explaining in great detail about your diagnosis, procedures, and treatments. He is great at listening and answering all of your questions. He is extremely knowledgeable and spends more time with you than a typical doctor would.... Because he spends lots of time with all of his patients he is always running behind, sometimes we have had to wait as long as 2 hours past our appointment time to be seen.
The clinic [CentraCare Health] does not do IVF and if it gets to that point you will be referred to a clinic in the twin cities area. The waiting room for reproductive medicine is also the same waiting room for those going in for routine ultrasounds for pregnancy. So more than likely you will be in a waiting room filled with pregnant people... Some of the nursing staff are better than others, there are 3 total that deal with the fertility treatments.
How was your experience with David Kroska at CentraCare Heatlh?
Dr. Kroska is extremely knowledgeable and very good at listening and answering questions. I was referred to him by an RE in Maple Grove based on suspicion of possible endometriosis. He performed an exam and listened to my symptoms. He immediately ordered an MRI, referred me to a colon surgeon to have a colonoscopy and exam done, and scheduled surgery with a colon surgeon and urologist present. Within less than a month I had many follow up appointments and surgery completed. At my post-op appointment he came up with a long term plan of doing depo-lupron injections to help reduce some of the endo they were not able to remove and then to start with medicated IUI cycles. Immediately after surgery he told my family he really didn't think IUIs would necessarily work for me and that he would like to see me move on to IVF sooner rather than later. However at my post-op appointment he said he would like me to do 6 IUIs before moving on to IVF. That was a bit of a mixed message which was confusing to us. I did also have to remind him of the PCOS diagnosis I had received from an RE in Maple Grove and remind him to put me on Metformin for that - however Dr. Kroska said after doing surgery he wouldn't say I would have PCOS because my ovaries did not appear to be polycystic but said he trusted the doctor in Maple Grove and would prescribe me Metformin anyhow. I do wish he would have looked into that a little bit further because my FSH and LH levels were flipped which is a big indicator of PCOS so I am curious if I don't have PCOS if there are other things going on that might be causing the flip that we have missed. As with any doctor, it is extremely important to come prepared with questions and advocate for your own health. In general I have been very satisfied with any visit I have had with him, however once I have started the actual fertility treatments, we have not actually seen or talked with him once. He is not involved at all with the actual administration of the fertility treatment and not available to personally answer our questions, everything is done through nursing staff which at times can be frustrating and scary.
What's one piece of advice would you give a prospective patient of David Kroska at CentraCare Heatlh?
Be prepared ahead of time to remind him of your history, previous comments/suggestions he has made to you at prior appointments, and be prepared with a list of questions to ask him. He will listen and spend lots of time with you. Because he spends lots of time with all of his patients he is always running behind, sometimes we have had to wait as long as 2 hours past our appointment time to be seen. That can be difficult and frustrating, but it makes it worth it when you know he is actually going to spend the time with you that you need and deserve to have all of your questions answered.
During treatment, were you treated like a number or a human with David Kroska at CentraCare Heatlh?
Dr. Kroska spends a lot of time with you explaining in great detail about your diagnosis, procedures, and treatments. He is great at listening and answering all of your questions. He is extremely knowledgeable and spends more time with you than a typical doctor would.
Describe the protocols David Kroska used in your cycles at CentraCare Heatlh and their degree of success.
Dr. Kroska did my endometriosis surgery and placed me on 4 months of depo-lupron injections following surgery. He said the depo-lupron injections would help clear up any endometriosis implants they were not able to remove during surgery and he felt it would give us our best possible chance of conceiving if we went that route first prior to pursuing fertility treatment. He gave us an option and said we didn't have to do it but we followed his advice. The nurses told me I would get my period back a month after injection but they gave me bad information and it took nearly 3 months which was frustrating.
I went in for my first IUI cycle and it was cancelled due to a baseline ultrasound showing 2 cysts slightly over 11mm. They put me on birth control for a month. I went in for my 2nd attempt IUI and I had 1 cyst at 33mm after being on birth control and the cycle was cancelled again. The nurses told me that if it happened a third time in a row the doctor might be willing to just continue on. Then after being on birth control and bleeding most of the month on it, I didn't get my period which has never happened before. They had to start me on meds to trigger my period which of course postponed things by a little over 2 weeks.
The third IUI attempt I went in and the cyst had gone down to 24mm. The nurses told me they were going to cancel again, after reminding them what the last nurse had said they did check with Dr. Kroska and he said to just let me continue on. We did Letrozole with cycle monitoring, HCG injection, 1 timed intercourse and then the IUI followed up by estrogen and progesterone suppositories. They had warned us to not get our hopes up and that more than likely it wouldn't work the first time and it did not. We went in for our baseline for our fourth attempt and the cyst had grown again to 28mm and we were cancelled again and put on birth control. I was pretty frustrated after lots of cancelled cycles, and no answers as to what would help (clearly birth control wasn't helping). I decided to do a diet change based on my own research (gluten free, dairy free, sugar free). Our fifth attempt baseline showed no cysts and we are in progress on our 2nd IUI currently doing the exact same protocol. I have asked the nurses what the long-term plan is since this is clearly taking way longer than expected to be able to do fertility treatments and they never have an answer and I am not able to ask Dr. Kroska because we don't see him at all during the treatment process.
Describe your experience with the nursing staff at CentraCare Heatlh.
Some of the nursing staff are better than others, there are 3 total that deal with the fertility treatments. Sandy seems to have the most experience, knowledge, and best patient care. We always hope she is working on the days we come in. Sandy is very good at answering questions, listening, comforting, and researching. The others at times seem unable to answer questions or provide answers that are incorrect. They are all 3 very nice but we feel more comfortable when we are able to work with Sandy. The nursing staff is who you will only see and work with throughout the entire treatment process, so it can feel very scary if you are dealing with a nurse you do not feel confident in. I have asked them questions to please ask the doctor for me and they usually come back with an answer for only 1 of my many questions.
Describe your experience with CentraCare Heatlh.
The clinic does not do IVF and if it gets to that point you will be referred to a clinic in the twin cities area. The waiting room for reproductive medicine is also the same waiting room for those going in for routine ultrasounds for pregnancy. So more than likely you will be in a waiting room filled with pregnant people which can be emotionally challenging at times.
Describe the costs associated with your care under David Kroska at CentraCare Heatlh.
My first IUI was around $950 and that was with only 1 ultrasound for follicle monitoring. There is a management fee that is about $300 each cycle that does not cover any certain medical treatment/procedure.
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